More details on China Unicom’s 3G Inn femto

Yu Ying Tao, General Manager of China Unicom, has provided further details of his company’s 3G Inn femtocell (for which Huawei has claimed credit).  The device will be available for a “small monthly fee”, while calls and web browsing via the femtocell will not count against the subscriber’s monthly minutes or data usage.  Interestingly, China Unicom and Apple are also working to make the iPhone support China’s Wi-Fi security standard.  Up until now, the iPhone has not been able to use Wi-Fi in China.

Mobile data ‘congestion pricing’ to boost femtocell market

AT&T’s head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, told investors at a New York conference that the company will give high-bandwidth mobile data subscribers “incentives to reduce or modify their usage.”  He commented that “some form of usage-based pricing for data is inevitable.”

Although de la Vega later denied that AT&T has any plans to introduce tiered data pricing, pointing instead to greater use of incentives including free Wi-Fi and femtocells, GigaOM believes the introduction of congestion pricing for mobile broadband will happen “sooner than you expect” as the mobile networks strain to cope with demand.  Juniper Research agrees, making an overhaul of mobile data pricing its top prediction for 2010.

Congestion charging looks like a potential win for the femtocell market, making the concept of a personal 3G cell with no data charges increasingly attractive to consumers – assuming that operators don’t charge for data on a home femtocell (in line with China Unicom’s announced policy – see above).  This seems like a reasonable approach, given that femtocells dramatically reduce the cost to the operator of delivering mobile data.

However, it’s likely that improved indoor data coverage from femtocells will lead to further increases in data usage.  De la Vega notes that when AT&T introduced 3G at 850 MHz, it immediately experienced a 30% increase in traffic because the wireless signal could now penetrate buildings more effectively.

Over 50% of US consumers are interested in femtocells

An ABI Research survey has found that, despite a lack of marketing by carriers, over half of US consumers are interested in having a femtocell.  Younger people are especially keen.  “Close to 25% of respondents to our survey were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ interested in using a femtocell,” reports principal analyst Aditya Kaul.  “A further 31% were ’somewhat’ interested.”

Verizon promotes its Network Extender femtocell for Christmas

Verizon Wireless is offering $50 off its Network Extender femtocell this Christmas in an effort to encourage its customers to give “the gift of enhanced coverage”.  Even with the $50 rebate, the device is still much more expensive than AT&T’s 3G MicroCell.  Amongst other benefits, Verizon claims its femtocell is “easy to find” and “easy to wrap”.  (No wonder David Chambers gives the carriers’ attempts at femtocell marketing a “C” in his end of year report card.)

T-Mobile seeks femtocell interoperability with Huawei & Ubiquisys

T-Mobile has signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei and Ubiquisys intended to “pave the way for operators to select standards-based femtocells and femto gateways from multiple vendors” using 3GPP’s Iuh standard.  “These IOT-tests will demonstrate for the first time that femtocell interoperability is becoming a reality,” commented T-Mobile’s Klaus-Jürgen Krath.

The Ubiquisys’ Access Point will be paired with Huawei’s gateway for 6 months of testing.  Interestingly, there is no word on whether Huawei’s AP will be expected to interoperate with the Kineto gateway (the regular partner for Ubiquisys’ AP as part of NEC’s femtocell solution), despite Kineto’s simultaneous announcement of support for Iuh.

Paul Rasmussen at Fierce Wireless questions whether T-Mobile’s announcement undermines the Femto Forum’s upcoming Iuh plugfest, but this is clearly far from the case.  Iuh is still new – the more testing the better.

Ubiquisys announces femto software

Ubiquisys has announced its femtocell Access Point is now available in kit form, with separate Femto-Engine software and an “Engine-Ready” hardware reference design.  The combination is already being used in third party boxes, such as the Sercomm-built G3 mini femto.

Current Analysis’ Peter Jarich suggests that it may be hard to articulate how the solution differs from other “femto reference designs” from the likes of picoChip and Aricent.  In reality, he understands that there’s a world of difference between the raw reference design and a working femtocell, but it might “take some people time to figure that out”.

US TV industry advocates femtocells

“There is no shortage of wireless spectrum in [the US],” says John Hane, counsel for the law firm representing the US TV broadcast industry.  The FCC wants to pinch some unused TV spectrum for mobile broadband, but Hane argues instead that existing spectrum should be used more efficiently with femtocells.

2009 femto reviews and 2010 predictions

Mark Lowenstein, Fierce Wireless: “I see the femto market to be positioned more as a broad-based “network gateway” solution for the office and home, playing a critical role in adjudicating how traffic flows across various networks and devices.”

David Chambers, ThinkFemtocell: 2009 – “While the vendors have managed to continue to maintain a lot of the original hype and buzz around the technology, the various operator launches have generally been remarkably quiet affairs”; 2010 – “Operators [will] more actively promote their femtocell offerings [with] a range of more attractive pricing options.”

Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis: “Ignore the impatient critics expecting overnight adoption [of consumer femtocells]; the momentum is building slowly but steadily.  The need for extra capacity, offload and the ability to use them as services platforms is inexorable.  I’m expecting decent-size deployments in 2010 – although ignore anyone suggesting it’s an alternative to WiFi.”

Ed Hansberry, Information Week: “It seems to me a femtocell is a no brainer for the carriers to push…If AT&T gave a MicroCell…to all iPhone users, it could significantly reduce traffic that has caused AT&T so much bad publicity.”

Award wins

Percello has won Frost & Sullivan’s “2009 European Femtocell Baseband Processor Solutions Technology Innovation of the Year Award”.  Fancy that!  Congratulations also go to KGaA for the “2009 Adhesives for Mobile Electronics Green Excellence of the Year Award”, and Konftel for the “2009 World Audio-conferencing Tabletop Market Growth Leadership Award”.  Hmmm.

In-flight cellphone usage

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has released a discussion paper detailing plans for in-flight mobile phone use, following successful trials of on-board picocells with Qantas.  Meanwhile the Inflight Passenger Communications Coalition has been arguing that the US should catch up with the rest of the world and allow in-flight cellphone usage.

In other femto news…

• Femtocells on the BBC.
• Fourth 3G license award in France “should give birth to a host of discussion about femtocells”.
• Le femtocell, avenir de la convergence fixe-mobile?
• DeadZones forecasts that cable companies will use femtocells to become “formidable competitors in wireless”.
• Josh Adelson notes that operators are beginning to confess their coverage problems.
• Femto Forum to hold press conference at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
• Mike Cronin says Node H is aiming for turnkey femtocells.
• Broadcom stonewalls journalists’ questions regarding its interest in femtocells.
• Airvana goes private (it’s all about the money).
• MicroCell user unsure whether to be concerned about microwave emissions (don’t be).
• Femto fiction!
• RadioFrame auctions its pool table and other assets.
• “LTE Advanced-Femto Cells Middle East-Africa-Asia 2010” – a conference somewhat ahead of its time, perhaps?

In other news altogether…

• TeliaSonera launches world’s first commercial LTE networks in Stockholm and Oslo.
• 37% of UK iPhone owners watch video on their handsets.
• Is T-Mobile US discontinuing HotSpot@Home?
• ABI predicts a billion dollar market for remote radio heads in 2014.

Some nice AT&T 3G MicroCell tweets

• “Whoohoo! I got a 3G MicroCell today and it’s working now!  I get service at home now!!!!!”
• “Got an ATT MicroCell!  Working great and gives me 3G.”
• “The 3G MicroCell rules.  5 bars all over my house!”

Experiments in femtocell marketing

Following SFR’s entertaining promotional video for its new Home 3G femtocell, it’s interesting to see quite a few blogs and articles this week relating to the question of how femtocells should be marketed to consumers.

RCR Wireless recommends that femtocells should be featured in those junk-mail Christmas catalogues which “make a blanket with arm holes in it look like something that I not only can’t live without, but that I need to have it in every color”.  Hmmm.

This political blogger received a more conventional email offer from AT&T.  The message read: “You deserve to get the most out of your voice and data services – wherever you are.  And with the new AT&T 3G MicroCell you’ll get a quality signal with up to 5-bar coverage – right in your home!”  Unfortunately she objected to the $150 price tag and is “not a biter”.

MagicJack has adopted the novel approach of marketing a femtocell offering that doesn’t actually exist (and never will).

Sprint has been giving away its AIRAVE femtocell as a way of retaining customers who have no coverage at home.  Here’s another example this week.  The AIRAVE has had a revamp and now comes in a new form factor.  The box is a bit bigger and now looks like the Verizon Network Extender, bit it still doesn’t have 3G.  Nevertheless, it’s not hard to find happy AIRAVE customers.

Current Analysis’ Peter Jarich has long been an advocate for more creative femtocell marketing, including the introduction of femtozone services.  This week he gives Fierce Wireless further thoughts from his Femtocells Americas conference presentation.  “Marketing is critical to the success of any new service or technology,” he comments.  “In the femtocell space, it is largely absent – particularly when compared against the $100 million budgets for marketing a new mobile device.”

Commenting on SFR’s coverage-based proposition for the Home 3G femtocell, David Chambers asserts that operators should promote femtocells as a premium service that delivers better voice quality and improved data performance compared to the macro network.  “The reality is these femtocells give very high quality voice and very high speed data response,” he says.

On a related note, Vodafone Spain has just introduced tiered pricing for its mobile data packages, offering subscribers the chance to have their traffic prioritised when the network is congested (for an extra €49 per month).  This is the kind of thing analysts have been predicting, as the business model for flat-rate mobile data increasingly fails to support adequate performance on overcrowded networks.  (For example, 3 UK this week said it would suspend sales of 3G dongles in areas where its network performance is not up to standard.)  This is where the concept of “your own personal cell”, offering premium service at home, begins to look attractive.  Femtocells already cost a lot less than €49 per month.

In other news…

• Another happy 3G MicroCell reviewer.
• NetworkWorld says it’s fair that femtocells should use your broadband connection.
• GSMA Technology Director concerned about femto clock sync.  (Why??).
• ThinkFemtocell summarises current commercial femtocell deployments…
• …and offers some thoughts on SFR’s Home 3G launch.
• Explaining WiMAX femtocells.
• NICTA’s Mark Reed explains the InterfereX Project’s Uplink Interference Cancelling technology.
• Rupert Baines gets on his hard hat and goes mining for the femto mother lode.
• Zahid Ghadialy provides some reflections on femtocells.
• NEC claims credit for SFR femto rollout.
• GENBAND supplies Converged Gateway to NEC for SFR.
• IntelliNet and Node H complete interoperability testing.
• Lime Microsystems and picoChip collaborate on femto reference design.
• Another data crunch article.
• Only 54% of US subscribers are happy with their cellphone service.

SFR ‘Home 3G’ goes live (website ¦ user guide)

SFR launched its Home 3G femtocell this week.  Like the Vodafone Access Gateway, it’s a standalone femtocell offering improved 3G coverage (but, at least initially, no homezone tariffs or femto services).

Some operators have been reluctant to promote an ‘improved coverage’ proposition (which could be interpreted as an admission of problems with the network).  However, it’s good to see that SFR is making an effort to attract customers for Home 3G; there’s an entertaining video showing how poor 3G coverage can lose a chap his girlfriend (at least if she’s daft enough to stand in the rain sending texts instead of ringing the doorbell).

Current Analysis’ Peter Jarich calls Home 3G “a wonderfully simple proposition”.  He also points out that SFR is marketing the femtocell as much for data as for voice, aiming to “reinforce SFR’s reputation for superior mobile broadband network coverage, both in the wide-area and indoors.”  Jarich believes that indoor service quality may become a key differentiator as network sharing removes differences in outdoor HSPA coverage, and speculates that Orange France may be forced to rethink its preference for UMA over femtocells for the consumer market (see also rumours here).

Consumer reaction has been limited so far, but according to one comment the €199 price may be considered a bit steep: “La technologie est intéressante mais le prix l’est moins” (The technology is interesting, but the price is less so).

In what Rethink Wireless calls a “reversal of national loyalties”, SFR’s femtocell is based on British femto technology from Ubiquisys, supplied by NEC, whereas the Vodafone UK solution hails from partly French owned Alcatel-Lucent.  In an interview with Mobile Europe, Ubiquisys CTO Will Franks claims an advantage over the Alcatel Lucent system: “The radio technology has to be very good…Operators such as Vodafone UK which had a free carrier can use something less sophisticated, but operators on shared carriers…need something that will not give them interference in the macro network.”

My French is a bit rusty, but I found are a few interesting snippets on the SFR website FAQ:

• The service works with any Internet connection, and doesn’t require SFR’s NeufBox residential gateway.
• The signal range is advertised as 15m (providing a coverage area of over 7,500 sq ft).
• When in femtocell coverage, SFR phones display “SFR Home 3G” (or on some phones “20811″ or “F11″).
• The access control list can hold up to four numbers in addition to the subscriber’s own.  (SFR charges subscribers between €2 and €4 for changing numbers on the access control list after the first month!  Changes take 48 hours to come into effect, which implies that the system is not yet automated.)
• Home 3G is not compatible with fibre-optic broadband Internet services.
• The installation video indicates that the femtocell should be placed at least 1.5 metres from the NeufBox.  (Vodafone UK recommends a 6 ft separation between its femtocell and a WiFi router, as a precaution against poor frequency filters in the WiFi unit.)
• Strangely, the SFR website lists seven 3G handsets that are incompatible with the Home 3G femtocell.  (Fortunately the flagship iPhone 3GS is not one of these.)

The Taiwanese are coming

According to DIGITIMES, “nearly all major Taiwan-based network equipment makers have ventured into the production of indoor-use femtocells”.  The publication suggests that this could result in femtocell price reductions to the magic figure of $100 per unit in the second half of 2010.  Gemtek chairman Howard Chen says he expects femtocells to be one of the “major items” his company ships to carriers in 2010.

Femtocells “not dead yet”

Despite having “pretty much decided that the femto market is dead”, GigaOM acknowledges that other analysts disagree.  Stacey Higginbotham cites a Deutsche Bank report concluding that all carriers will have to use femtocells in order to keep up with the demand for mobile broadband.  But Stacey believes carriers are “going to have to improve their networks in a way that doesn’t pass on the femtocell cost to consumers”.

Engadget asks “How Would You Change AT&T’s 3G MicroCell?”

The most popular answers are (1) roll it out nationwide, and (2) make it free (or less than about $50, anyway).

More from SpiderCloud

Despite insisting that its E-RAN is not a femtocell, SpiderCloud says it can connect to the operator’s standard 3G core network using the Iuh standard.  But some aspects of the system do sound very different from the femtocell approach; for example, in an interview with ThinkFemtocell, SpiderCloud’s VP Marketing Ronny Haraldsvik explains that the E-RAN requires “considerable co-ordination and configuration of the macrocell network” (for example to achieve hand-in).

ABI redresses the balance

ABI Research has hit back at the sensationalist reporting of its recently revised femtocell forecasts, saying that its predictions were “taken out of context, conveniently leaving out the part where we said we still believe in this market”.  Aditya Kaul’s blog posting discusses a number of recent positive femtocell announcements, and concludes that the femto market is “just beginning to take shape”.

In other news…

• NSN and China Mobile show TD-LTE femto demo.
• Too much femto jargon?  Yes!
• Video of Percello / Node H demo of 16 simultaneous calls on PRC 6500 chip.
• Pete Claydon to leave picoChip.
• Here’s a happy VAG user.
• NICTA and Rohde & Schwarz Demonstrate Interference-cancellation.
• Revenues from in-flight WiFi slow to take off.
• Survey: would you pay for better cell voice/data coverage at home?
• STM announces SuperPico (looks more like a small macro) for small GSM operators

SFR to launch ‘Home 3G’ femtocell

Adverts for SFR’s Home 3G femtocell have appeared on the Internet.  It’s a standalone femtocell that will work with any ISP.  The price is ­­free with a 24-month contract, €5 per month for 12-month commitment or €199 to buy the box outright.  Like the Vodafone Access Gateway, Home 3G is positioned as an indoor coverage solution.  The solution has been developed by NEC with femtocell technology from Ubiquisys and Kineto.  Here are some articles in French.

AT&T shows 3G MicroCell in San Diego

AT&T made its 3G MicroCell available in San Diego just in time for the Femtocells Americas conference.  The MicroCell was on display at the ip.access stand, where AT&T subscribers attending the conference were able to use the femtocell for calls and mobile data services after adding their phone numbers to the access control list via a simple web interface.

Vendors collaborate on femto services

ip.access, Airvana and Ubiquisys have demonstrated Intrinsyc’s UX-Zone™ femtocell-aware phone application working with all three vendors’ femtocells.  UX-Zone incorporates femtocell presence triggers to change the user interface on a smartphone automatically as soon as it detects a femtocell.  Working within the Femto Forum’s Services SIG, ip.access, Airvana and Ubiquisys have implemented the presence triggers in a standardised way.

The Register claims that the best use for UX-Zone would be to indicate cheaper call rates on the femtocell, but that the companies involved in the demo won’t admit this for fear of “upsetting the network operators who see no reason to discount services just because they’re being carried on the customer’s infrastructure”.  This is a rather cynical view.  Some operators (Sprint and AT&T, for instance) do offer discounted calls on their femtocells, and they already have ways to indicate that the phone is in the femtozone.

The true significance of the demo – progress towards standardisation of femto service APIs – was recognised by other commentators, including Information Week and Rethink Wireless.  Presenting at the Femtocells Americas conference in San Diego this week, NTT DoCoMo and other mobile operators emphasised the importance of new services enabled by femtocells.  After the conference, the Femto Forum invited application developers to a breakfast briefing on femto services, which appears to have inspired at least one commentator.

Femto Forum publishes market commentary

The Femto Forum has published a new report on the state of the femtocell market, highlighting 8 commercial deployments worldwide.  The report also provides information about the ecosystem of femtocell technology suppliers, and an update on standards and regulatory developments.

Mobile data increases 20-fold in a year on O2 UK network

Announcing a £100 million network upgrade, O2 CTO Derek McManus said that “world-class smartphones” were to blame for a 20-fold increase in the operator’s mobile data traffic in the last 12 months.  “Watching a YouTube video on a smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously,” he said.

picoChip raises another $20m

picoChip’s investors have put another $20 million into the company, showing confidence that the femtocell market is set for take-off.  At the same time, picoChip is aiming to expand its product offering to include a more complete femtocell reference design, including automated interference management, network self organization and even a TR-069 management module.

According to Caroline Gabriel at Rethink Wireless, picoChip has been through the hype cycle and is coming out the other side, with femtocells “set for significant adoption in 2010 and a true mass market in 2011-2012”.  She notes that this progress is “lightning fast compared to most new technologies”.

Arcadyan to develop femtocells for Far EasTone

Network equipment maker Arcadyan Technology is developing femtocells with mobile operator Far EasTone Telecommunications.  The two Taiwanese companies are receiving government financial support for the project.

Samsung to launch 3G UbiCell

Samsung has announced a 3G upgrade to its CDMA femtocell.  Available in 2010, the 3G UbiCell will support EV-DO Rev A and 1xRTT in simultaneous operation at 800 & 1900 MHz.  Engadget believes that Verizon is the lead customer.

Ubiquisys announces ‘wide area femtocell’

Ubiquisys has introduced what it calls a “wide area femtocell” for rural deployments.  The 16-user device has vastly higher power (20-30 W) and much longer range (1.5 km) compared to a conventional femtocell, but according to Ubiquisys it retains the key advantage of being deployed without any cell planning.  The wide area femtocell was developed for SoftBank Mobile in Japan.

Correction: the transmit power is at a typical femtocell level of 10 mW.

RadioFrame assets sold

Motorola has bought RadioFrame Networks’ iDEN basestation business.  More interestingly, Unstrung reports that the company’s femtocell assets have also been sold to a mystery buyer, and speculates that this might be chip-maker Broadcom.

In other news…

• Are femtocells dead on arrival?  Hardly!
• Carl Weinschenk comments on ABI forecast reduction.
• David Chambers asks what defines a commercial femtocell launch.
• Zarlink announces IEEE1588 and NTP femto timing solution.
• Brillant also announces femto timing solution for Alcatel-Lucent.
• Femtocells are good news for fixed broadband in Digital Britain.
• Peter Jarich’s slides from the Femtocells Americas conference.
• Return of the femtocell.

NTT DoCoMo launches MyArea femtocell

Following through on an initial announcement last July, NTT DoCoMo has launched its MyArea HSUPA-capable femtocell in Japan.  According to DoCoMo, the femtocell “creates a private FOMA area in the home as a highly stable wireless environment for high-speed packet communication”.  Pricing is only $5 per month with no sign-up fee (although this will increase to $22 sign-up + $10 per month next June – further details here).  It appears that DoCoMo is carrying out installations of the femtocell for its customers.

Of particular interest is the operator’s emphasis on services.  For example, the MyArea femtocell uses presence detection to inform parents when their children arrive at home.  It also offers exclusive music and video content for MyArea subscribers in the femtozone.

Comcast testing WiMAX femtocells

According to Fierce Wireless, Comcast is conducting trials of WiMAX femtocells.  Although femtocells are “slowly worming their way into the heart of the U.S. wireless industry,” a commercial WiMAX femtocell deployment by the nation’s largest cable provider probably won’t happen until next year.

ABI reduces 2009 femtocell forecast

ABI Research caused a stir by reducing its 2009 femtocell shipment forecast by 55% from 790,000 to 350,000 units.  According to practice director Aditya Kaul, “operators haven’t pushed femtocells as much or as soon as expected”.  The news sparked sensationalist headlines, such as “Femtocells struggle to catch on” and “Femtocells are a no show”.

But despite what Wireless Week calls a “drastic lowering” of ABI’s femtocell estimates, the reality is that the research firm’s forecast has changed very little over the medium term.  Commenting on Think Femtocell, Kaul is keen to point out that his views of the femtocell market have been mis-represented by the dramatic headlines, and that he remains positive about the market’s potential.  Meanwhile, the ABI Twitter feed highlights that recent femtocell announcements in China, Japan and India are positive for the market.

Vodafone promotes its femtocell

As Verizon and AT&T wage a war of words (and TV adverts) over who has the best 3G network in the US, Vodafone in the UK is claiming that the iPhone 3Gs will work much faster on its network than those of its rivals.  Vodafone also points out that its Access Gateway femtocell turbo-charges 3G performance at home – something What Mobile believes could be a significant advantage over the UK’s other iPhone operators, O2 and Orange.

Meanwhile, Vodafone reseller Next Communications is offering £30 off the price of the Vodafone Access Gateway for its small and medium sized business customers.

KPN and OnePhone target German SMEs with femtocells

A joint venture between KPN and OnePhone will use femtocells [actually picocells] to target German businesses with between 30 and 1,500 employees.  OnePhone (under the Spring Mobil brand) already uses picocells in Sweden to deploy its network in business premises, enabling its customers to save money by getting rid of their fixed line phones.  In Germany, the company’s phones will roam onto KPN’s E-Plus network when outdoors.

Airvana announces enterprise femtocell

Airvana has announced the HubBub UMTS High-Capacity Femtocell.  Shipping sometime next year, the device will support 16 simultaneous voice calls with a range of up to 600 meters and data throughput of 21.6 Mbps download (5.7 Mbps upload).

Commenting in a market research update, Current Analysis’ Peter Jarich says enterprise femtocells are “more important than ever”.

In other news…

• Another good 3G MicroCell review.
• ThinkFemtocell advocates easy self-management of femto access control lists.
• Fierce Wireless encourages operators to focus on femto services and enterprise deployments.
• AirWalk wins CDG Innovation in Wireless Enterprise Solutions Development Award.
• Airvana also wins CDG award for CDMA femtocell with integrated analogue telephone adaptor and router.
• Airvana dismisses the “femto grid” concept (no argument there).
• HTC builds phone with MiFi embedded.
• US data market update.
• NICTA demonstrates new interference-cancellation modem for 3G femtocell networks.

The magic of the MicroCell (and WiFi)

Telephony Online’s Kevin Fitchard believes that AT&T’s 3G MicroCell could become “another pillar in AT&T’s dual-network strategy” – WiFi and cellular, that is.  AT&T has become increasingly reliant on WiFi to offload mobile data traffic from its 3G network, with iPhones now connecting to WiFi automatically in AT&T hotspots, causing a 66% leap in the number of hotspot connections.

John Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T Operations, explained this in his keynote speech at SUPERCOMM: “We’re…focusing on how we make WiFi and licensed spectrum a more seamless experience for customers…You’re going to see micro and macro in terms of licensed and unlicensed spectrum.  This is a key architecture element we’re all going to have to come to grips with.”

Telephony Online points to an earlier interview with Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, suggesting that the 3G MicroCell is also set to become part of this offload strategy.  “It’s not going to be one thing; it will be a combination of things: taking fiber closer to the home, Wi-Fi and femtocells.  A combination of all of those is going to help us manage bandwidth and provide a great experience to our customers no matter where they connect,” says de la Vega.

So is it WiFi for hotspots and femtocells for the home?  There would be some logic to this approach from AT&T’s perspective.  It’s one thing for a carrier to offload mobile data traffic onto its own managed WiFi network, but quite another to encourage its customers to switch to their own private WiFi networks at home, where the carrier retains no involvement whatsoever.

Alternatively, will WiFi take on femtocells and win?

Picking up on the WiFi / femto theme, Stacey Higginbottom at GigaOm asks “who needs femtocells if we have WiFi?”  According to Stacey we’ve seen WiFi take on femtocells in the enterprise and win (when did that happen?), so as Wi-Fi gets embedded in more and more phones femtocells will become unnecessary.  But most observers are now seeing WiFi and femtocells as complementary.  For example, Senza Fili’s Monica Paolini expresses this more balanced view on the Cisco Community site.

3G MicroCell gets 9.5 out of 10 Stammys!

Renowned tech blogger Paul Stamatiou gave the AT&T 3G MicroCell a review this week.  He had some problems getting a GPS location fix, which meant that activation took a long time, but apart from this the review is very positive:

• “5 bars in every room and no degradation of call quality while moving about”
• “Call quality is as good as I have ever heard from an iPhone 3GS”
• “I have not experienced any degradation of call quality, even when I was soaking up tons of my bandwidth”
• “I gladly paid for the MicroCell out of my own wallet, which allowed me to dump my $26/month Vonage VoIP setup and not have to deal with having two phone numbers.”
• “Setup was a huge pain, but I can forget about that for the great service and call quality it provides.”

Overall, the AT&T 3G MicroCell was awarded 9.5 out of 10 Stammys.

Also this week, The Apple Blog updated its MicroCell review and reported some teething problems with service outages (attributed to firmware updates).  It seems that the problems are now fixed, except that calls to India are not the highest quality (which might not necessarily be the MicroCell’s fault).

More on China Unicom’s 3G Inn femtocell

ABI’s Aditya Kaul suggests that China Unicom is “looking at a massive [femtocell] rollout”, ramping up towards end of next year.  He believes it’s not a coincidence that the operator’s ‘3G Inn’ femtocell announcement has coincided with the (WiFi-less) Chinese iPhone launch, and points out that, unlike the AT&T 3G MicroCell and the Vodafone Access Gateway, it will be harder to track the 3G Inn’s progress via the blogs and Twitter due to the great Chinese firewall!

Vodafone Access Gateway & WiFi

Last week we heard about problems with Total Telecom’s trial of the Vodafone Access Gateway interfering with WiFi.  This week the problem is resolved, but only at the cost of moving the WiFi Access Point and the femtocell 6 feet apart.  It seems the trouble was probably caused by a poor quality spectrum filter in the WiFi unit.  (Fortunately this is not a complicated thing to get right, so those anticipated integrated femto / WiFi home gateways will not need to be 6 feet wide.)

SpiderCloud ‘not a femtocell’

The Register says SpiderCloud Wireless is stressing that its new E-RAN offering is not a femtocell play.  Apparently this is because the E-RAN is fully integrated with the network and can therefore support two-way handover.  If this is indeed SpiderCloud’s claim, they may be surprised to discover that femtocells are also fully integrated with the network and can support two-way handover (although not yet in a standardised way).

Meanwhile, Peter Jarich questions the viability of an offering that relies on wireless carriers as a channel into large enterprises, and Unstrung regrets that the company has nothing to do with Spiderpig.

Wireless Week sceptical about femtocells

Probably as a result of too much hype in the early days, there’s now a common misconception that femtocells have been around for ages and that that consumer adoption has been disappointing.  For example, Wireless Week comments: “femtocells…have simply failed to thrive.”  But the reality is that femtocells are still a new technology.  Operators are only just beginning to deploy femtocells commercially and have not yet started actively marketing them.

In other news…

• Finding the right small-cell architecture for 4G.
• Imagine if every femtocell came equipped with a 1 TB hard drive…
• How femtocell billing works.
• Femtocells and iPhone Moms (er, Mums).
• Carriers must not overlook the importance of successfully marketing femtocells.
• 3 UK says data now represents 94% of its network traffic.
• Dual mode is ‘in’, but Nokia loses ground in the WiFi handset market.
• Smartphones to overtake feature phones by 2012.
• MiFi sales disappointing.
• Interview with Dave Gross of GWT and Shlomo Gadot of Percello.
• Tatara selects CCPU.
• SafeNet explains femto security.
• Oops, lost one…

China Unicom launches “3G Inn” femtocell

According to an announcement in Chinese (translation here), China Unicom has launched a commercial 3G femtocell service targeted at “high end” consumers.  The so-called “3G Inn” service requires a 2 Mbps residential broadband connection, and is available for a monthly fee.  With a mere 140 million subscribers, China Unicom is a long way behind market leader China Mobile (which uses the home-grown TDS-CDMA standard for its own 3G network).  But China Unicom may gain a competitive advantage from its femtocell deployment, especially as WiFi is not supported on Chinese smartphones (including the iPhone).  Think Femtocell provides further thoughts on the launch here, and on the recent China Femtocell Symposium here.

Indoor coverage problems affect UK workers

The problem of delivering mobile voice coverage and data capacity in office buildings is getting worse, making a very powerful argument for picocells (or enterprise femtocells, as some prefer to call them).

A new survey from ADC has found that poor mobile phone coverage is negatively affecting work for more than a quarter of UK employees.  The survey found that over 60% of people rely on their mobile phone for their job, but almost two thirds of these complain of a less than perfect mobile phone signal in their workplace, and almost 28% say their work has suffered as a result.  In addition to lifts, stairwells and conference rooms, almost a quarter of respondents said they have coverage problems at their own desks.

And the problem is going to get worse as mobile data becomes increasingly important to business users.  According to figures recently published by Informa, mobile enterprise revenues are set to grow significantly, and will account for almost a quarter of total mobile data service revenues by 2014.

AT&T MicroCell rocks!

Here’s an interesting concept – “in-home mobility”.  One blogger describes his friend’s experience at home before acquiring AT&T’s 3G MicroCell: “If you stood perfectly still in the master bedroom you could reliably connect a call but isn’t mobility the point of having a cell phone?”  The 3G MicroCell solved the problem so well that the blogger was moved to comment, “In short, the microcell rocks!”

Vodafone Access Gateway recognised by The Independent

The Vodafone Access Gateway has made it into The Independent’s list of the 50 Best Gadgets.  Unfortunately, this UK newspaper’s record on science and technology is pretty dire (this is the paper that started the ridiculous rumour that mobile phones are killing bees), but it’s still interesting that the Vodafone femtocell has caught mainstream media attention despite very little publicity to date.

Meanwhile, Total Telecom’s trial of the Vodafone Access Gateway has hit a problem (a “VAG snag”, so to speak).  Apparently the home WiFi connection doesn’t work properly when the VAG is switched on, and Total Telecom suspects interference.  This sounds unlikely (I’ve never seen a similar complaint from any other femtocell user), but something strange is clearly going on there.

SpiderCloud Wireless launches Enterprise RAN

SpicerCloud Wireless has finally come out of stealth mode to launch its Enterprise Radio Access Network product.  The system is aimed at giving mobile operators a tool for providing in-building mobile coverage in enterprises, and consists of a central hub controlling a number of remote radio heads.  Oddly, the company seems to think that this will be differentiated by providing coverage for smaller areas than picocells, when in fact the system looks designed to compete with larger systems such as DAS.  It’s also not clear whether the E-RAN can provide multi-operator support – normally a primary requirement for large in-building deployments – although the ‘enterprise benefits’ page on the website suggests perhaps not.  “Soon you can outsource ‘Anything Wireless’ to the Mobile Operator”, says the headline.  Well, that might be ok for a smaller business (where a picocell would work pretty well), but I doubt it’s a message that will appeal to the IT manager at a larger enterprise.

Mobile data jam hits the headlines

Industry insiders have been discussing the coming mobile data capacity crunch for a long time already.  Mark Heath’s guest posting on Think Femtocell this week makes it clear that LTE will not solve the problem, and WiFi and femtocells are often discussed as options for mobile operators to offload data traffic.  Mark Lowenstein’s article on Fierce Wireless this week reflects this view: “femtocells, rather than being a customer-centric solution for indoor coverage, represent more of an operator-centric solution for effective network management in buildings, leveraging the broadband network,” says Lowenstein.

Now the mobile data crunch is beginning to enter the mainstream consciousness.  This week the BBC reported that mobile data traffic will increase 25 times by 2012, while corresponding revenues will only double.  “The consumption rate is far outweighing the network improvement rate,” says Bytemobile’s Graham Carey, “…there’s a crunch point coming.”  The Beeb also quotes ADC vice president John Spindler: “Today the primary use for wireless is happening indoors…What’s going to happen if carriers do not respond appropriately?  They are going to crush the user experience.”

WiFi Direct vs Bluetooth – but will femtocells beat them both?

Nick Hunn notes the press interest in the battle between Bluetooth and the new WiFi Direct standard (aimed at making it easy to connect devices directly to one another).  However, he believes there is “another stalking technology” which could make direct connections between mobile devices redundant.  “If femtocells take off and users get used to using the network itself for transferring data between devices,” says Hunn, “then ad-hoc transfers may lose out altogether.”

Airvana says the femtocell’s time has come

According to Airvana CEO Randy Battat, “The femtocell’s time has come.”  In a press announcement of the company’s 3Q09 financial results, Battat says “We have been awarded several commercial deployments around the world with contracts in place and purchase commitments for significant volumes in 2010 and beyond.  Both our CDMA and UMTS femtocell products are in the final stages of software development and testing, with commercial production starting late this quarter and ramping in the first quarter of 2010.  We expect operator launches with Airvana products, especially in North America and Asia, starting in the first half of 2010.”

In other news…

• picoChip launches “Class 3” femtocell reference design with 2 km range – The Femto Forum defines 3 femtocell categories: Class 1 (typically residential), Class 2 (primarily indoor for enterprise) and Class 3 (for rural, metro and wider area deployment).
• Ubiquisys and Intrinsyc show demo at Symbian show.
• EU urges member countries to assign 790-862 MHz spectrum for mobile broadband.
• “Many of the reactions to proposed cell phone sites are based on misunderstandings about health issues”.

FCC’s net neutrality rules could help femtocells

On Thursday the FCC approved six rules for wired and wireless broadband Internet connections, but left the details of the rules open to public debate for the next 60 days.  One of the rules states that “subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications, and services in a non-discriminatory manner.”

As well as preventing a broadband provider from blocking Skype because it competes with its own VoIP service, this also means that Verizon and AT&T cannot block each other’s femtocell traffic on their fixed line networks.  Neither can they block Sprint’s femto traffic.

In practice, femtocell traffic is not being blocked on US broadband networks today (and there would be very little justification for an ISP to shape or throttle femto traffic for network management purposes).  However, some analysts continue to raise concerns that traffic blocking could potentially damage the femtocell market, and the new rules, when ratified, should finally put these concerns to bed – at least in the US.

One controversial aspect of the new net neutrality rules is that they extend to wireless networks as well as fixed.  CTIA has hinted at legal action, saying the rules “degrade the value” of the public spectrum carriers have licensed.  Further details of the impact of net neutrality for wireless can be found here.

MTNL wants 3G femtocells

India’s state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd is seeking bids for the deployment of 3G femtocells in Delhi and Mumbai.  A pilot project is expected to be up and running within 3 months.  According to MTNL, the aim is to “develop world class telecom facilities for its esteemed subscribers and efficient utilization of spectrum which is a precious scare [sic] national resource”.

3G MicroCell selected as Light Reading ‘Top Pick’

Light Reading has selected AT&T’s 3G MicroCell as one of its Wireless Infrastructure Top Picks.  According to Dan Jones, the Cisco-branded box is “an important proof point in the evolving femtocell industry” which could be important for AT&T in helping the company to “ease recent network congestion issues”.

The other Wireless Infrastructure Top Picks were Ericsson’s RBS 6000 software basestation and Vihaan Networks’ WorldGSM solar powered basestation.

eBooks and femtocells

Some time ago, ThinkFemtocell proposed that femtocells could improve the user experience for eBooks in the home.  With this in mind, I was interested to see a discussion amongst users of Amazon’s Kindle eBook.  Some users were having trouble downloading books over the AIRAVE’s CDMA 1x connection, and Amazon eventually confirmed that “EV-DO is necessary for a good web experience on the Kindle”.  So it seems that 3G femtocells are needed in order for ThinkFemtocell’s vision to be realised.  This might give Barnes & Noble an advantage with its own ereader, the “Nook”.  Wireless connectivity for the Nook is provided by AT&T, which has already launched a 3G femtocell.

Light Reading reviews the Vodafone Access Gateway

Gabriel Brown summarises his experiences after a few months of using the VAG, concluding that “the technology works, is exceedingly simple to use, and has the potential to deliver advanced services and applications”.  One particularly impressive feature is that the femtocell provides much greater coverage than WiFi, despite the “tiny amount of power the device puts out”.  Gabriel notes that the industry should now feel confident to “move forward on developing advanced, high-value [femto] services”.

Total Telecom is also trialling the VAG, and “so far, it’s great”.  But what they really want is an “all-singing, all-dancing router with WiFi, cellular, and home networking support” (some people are never satisfied J).

In other news…

• Node H demonstrates 16 simultaneous calls on Percello PRC6500 femto SoC.
• AIRCOM International explains why femtocells are important (part 3).
• Another user review of the Sprint AIRAVE.
• Femtocells are just an extension of cable companies’ long association with wireless backhaul.
• Femtocell panel planned for Fierce Wireless’ 4G Reality Check online conference.
• ThinkFemtocell interview with Ubiquisys’ Keith Day.
• Survey finds consumers are impatient for faster mobile Internet.
• And another survey finds the same thing.
• Stoke clings to dream of seamless WiFi-to-cellular roaming.

Mobilkom Austria gives mixed messages on femtocells

Mobilkom has announced that it wants to deploy femtocells commercially in Austria next year (and possibly in other European mobile subsidiaries of parent company Telekom Austria).  However, the company’s top management provides little encouragement for vendors to respond enthusiastically to its RFP.  Mobilkom CTO Johann Pichler told Unstrung he believes that femtocells are good for improving indoor coverage in “specific cases, but not generally,” and that the price of a femtocell needs to be “in the range of a WiFi router”.  According to Total Telecom, Pichler is also sceptical about using femtocells to offload data traffic from the macro network, apparently contradicting conventional wisdom by suggesting that the problem will be solved by LTE.

Femto Forum announces Iu-h plugfest

The Femto Forum has announced the ‘1st Femto Forum UMTS Femtocell Plugfest’ which will take place in March next year at ETSI’s facilities in the South of France.  There is widespread vendor support for the initiative, which aims to validate 3GPP’s Iu-h femtocell standard.

Current Analysis Research Director Peter Jarich commented, “a standard is meaningless until vendors and operators alike know that products are actually conforming to it, making interoperability testing a critical component of the femtocell market’s success.” But ABI’s Aditya Kaul believes that interoperability is a secondary consideration for operators, and that they are still more concerned with developing the business case.

Kevin Fitchard at Telephony Online looks forward to a time when femtocells are “standardized to a point customers can practically buy them off the shelf at a Best Buy or Radio Shack and expect them to work” (but his conjecture that femtocells are “a very European affair” is a rather strange one).

More 3G MicroCell news

Matt Ellenberger’s unboxing video for the 3G MicroCell shows how simple it is to set up and start using the device.  He seems like a happy customer.  Elsewhere, Mobiquizoid published a picture of the advert he received in the mail for AT&T’s femtocell in Atlanta.  The pricing is subtly different from Charlotte, where the free calling plan costs $20.  In Atlanta AT&T is trying two options – $15 for an individual free calling plan or $30 for a family plan.

Infonetics updates its FMC report

Infonetics Research has updated its FMC and Femtocell Equipment, Phones, and Subscribers report, finding “no evidence of the economic downturn having a major impact on the pace of FMC rollouts”.  The research firm expects a dozen major operators to launch femtocell services in 2010, giving the market “a kick-start”.

Sales of FMC network element equipment and femtocell equipment are forecast to grow to $7.4 billion worldwide by 2013, slightly down on the $8 billion forecast in the original version of the report back in March.  The number of femtocells sold is expected to increase five-fold from 2009 to 2010.

Smartphones are the real network hogs

Airvana has found that a typical smartphone generates eight times the network signalling load per MB of data transferred compared to a 3G connected laptop.  This “load multiplier effect” is caused by the fact that smartphones are always on, moving between cell sites and continually querying the network.  With iSuppli forecasting smartphone shipments to grow from nearly 200 million in 2009 to 450 million in 2013, this looks like a problem that’s going to get much worse.  Mobile Europe and Rethink Wireless both spoke to Airvana’s Dave Nowicki, who suggested that offloading smartphone data traffic onto femtocells will help operators stay in control.

How to make femtocells faster than WiFi

Dean Bubley says a mobile operator could strike a deal with a broadband provider to “over-provision” capacity to its femtocell gateway, thereby releasing a constraint on the backhaul – but only for femtocell traffic.  Dean suggests that “everybody wins” in this scenario.  The user gets a blazing-fast femto connection, the mobile operator offloads more traffic and has a happier customer, and the broadband provider gets extra revenue for doing very little.

Picocells & femtocells can solve the spectrum crisis

Carl Weinschenk ponders the “looming spectrum crisis” discussed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski at last week’s CTIA conference, and concludes that the cellular industry will not live up to expectations unless it meets the challenge of spectrum scarcity.  “The smart money says that picocells and femtocells are the best bets for keeping the problem under control,” says Weinschenk.

Other news

• Total Telecom says momentum in the femtocell market is picking up.
• ComputerWorld: “if seamlessness matters, look for femtocells to really take off”.
• AIRCOM International explains why femtocells are important (part 2).
• Mark Hay ploughs a lone furrow with 2G femtocells.
• Will Franks expands on location validation for femtocells.
• Manish Singh tries to convince Telecom TV femto-sceptic Ian Scales.
• GigaOM says femtocells won’t last long – but you have to pay if you want to know why (don’t think I’ll bother).
• David Chambers considers WiFi and femtocell as options for traffic offload.

AT&T expands 3G MicroCell availability

According to AT&T’s website, the 3G MicroCell is now available in Atlanta (29 stores) and Columbia (3 stores).  This follows last week’s launch in Raleigh (11 stores) and the original market of Charlotte NC (19 stores), making 62 stores in total.  One delighted customer commented, “Holy crap – AT&T 3g Microcell totally RULES.  5 bars in my house – I was lucky to have 1 before!”

It looks like AT&T has done very little so far by way of promotion.  Jason Nash (who provided one of the first and most comprehensive blog reviews of the device) hasn’t seen a single ad for the Microcell.  “Only reason I know is I saw it on MacRumors,” he comments on Twitter.  I did find one person who had received some promotional materials – (unfortunately not in an area where the MicroCell is available – oops!).

Meanwhile, AT&T came under further pressure this week over its 3G network coverage and performance.  (Verizon launched an aggressive ad campaign claiming superior 3G network coverage, playing on the “There’s an app for that” iPhone ad campaign with its own “There’s a map for that” ad.)  Speaking at the CTIA IT & Entertainment conference, AT&T CTO John Donovan highlighted AT&T’s substantial ongoing investments in upgrading its 3G network, and pointed out that AT&T has had to content with 5000% growth in data traffic over the last 3 years.

In an interview following his speech, Donovan also gave further details of how the 3G MicroCell plays in AT&T’s overall network strategy.  He said that AT&T will make the femtocell available to all its subscribers, and called it “one piece of the carrier’s overall network infrastructure.”  He also said that AT&T will “emphasize the technology more in certain markets where it will make a bigger difference in the user experience, such as areas where the carrier is still using 1900MHz.”

Senior industry figures advocate femtocells

In a keynote speech at the CTIA conference, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski warned the wireless industry that there isn’t enough spectrum to meet the future demands of mobile users.  He cited femtocells as part of the solution.

In another CTIA talk, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs also put his weight behind femtocells as the answer to continued network performance enhancements.  “That’s how we’re going to get these big increases,” said Jacobs.  ”We think we can get 8 to 10 times improvement in user experience by building up a dense network and managing the interference between the macro network and these femto networks.”

UK mobile coverage problems revealed

New research has found that a third of UK consumers and small businesses regularly experience mobile coverage problems.  “Large numbers of consumers and small businesses are still having problems making even basic voice calls,” said Anna Bradley, chairwoman of the Communications Consumer Panel which advises Ofcom.  The Panel is urging a ‘try before you buy’ system, with consumers being given time to check their coverage at home and work before being locked into a mobile phone contract.

Picocells are perfect for India

According to ip.access VP Mark Pittick, 2G picocells are the most cost-effective way for Indian mobile operators to solve network capacity and coverage problems caused by rapid subscriber growth.  In an interview with Indian publication Voice and Data, Mr Pittick said that operators in India today are looking to provide 2G picocells for business customers.  “There is an immediate business case, not to say urgent need, for this type of solution,” he said.

T-Mobile USA expands its UMA service to business customers

T-Mobile’s new ‘Wi-Fi Calling with MobileOffice’ service allows business customers to make free calls over WiFi in the office (as long as they have a UMA enabled BlackBerry phone).  The service relies on BlackBerry’s MVS system to integrate with the office PBX, giving users a single number for their mobile and desk phones while in the office.  But with no fixed line assets to protect, T-Mobile is also positioning its dual mode service as a way for businesses to save money by getting rid their desk phones altogether.

Femtocells to be distributed free in smart meters (well, maybe)

According to Mobile Exec magazine, UK homes could get free or subsidised femtocells as a result of a government drive that will see smart meters fitted in every household and business across England and Wales from 2016.  Mobile Exec speculates that smart meters equipped with GSM communications could include femtocells to ensure a good mobile connection for feeding back meter readings to the energy company.  Unfortunately this logic may be flawed.  As explained by Personal Computer World: “One possibility would be to have a WiFi gateway talking wirelessly to the meter.  But this presents the problem of what to do about homes with no broadband”.  It seems the idea is to use a femtocell instead, under the misapprehension that the femtocell can work without a broadband connection.  Oh well, never mind.

DoCoMo femtocell on display at ITU

I went to the ITU show in Geneva for the day on Wednesday.  Robert Mugabe was there, but it has to be said that there wasn’t much else of note happening.  The show was a shadow of its former self, but I did find one femtocell on display on the DoCoMo stand.  According to the stand rep, DoCoMo is still on track to launch its HSPA femtocell this year.

In other news…

• Sprint includes AIRAVE femtocell in turnkey back-office solution for MVNOs.
• The Register provides a belated review of the Vodafone Access Gateway (generally positive, although they expected hand-in to work – obviously didn’t read the FAQ).
• Vodafone Access Gateway tear-down report now available.
• Hay Systems’ Mark Hay says “[femtocell] success is coming but not in the timescale that most femtocell vendors were hoping for.”
• Huawei says operators could promote femtocells as environmentally friendly.
• New IDC report asks “Picocell-Enabled Enterprise Services in Western Europe: Dead in the Water?”  (At $640 for 4 pages I guess it needs a sensationalist title).
• AIRCOM International explains why femtocells are important.
• Ubiquisys shows femto apps on a feature phone without WiFi.
• Airvana explains why location locking for femtocells is necessary.
• On-Waves expands market for (ip.access) picocells on ships.
• David Chambers and Doug Knisely shed light on IMS standards for femtocells.
• Zahid Ghadialy explains femtocell standards in 3GPP.